Small, light-in-weight panels can be interlocked with one another to form large, modular structures such as divider walls, display panels for use at trade shows, and a myriad of other structures.
Accordingly, inventors have developed the panel art by providing structurally sound, light-in-weight panels that interlock along their edges to facilitate the assembly and disassembly of modular structures.
Examples of panel constructions and means for interlocking panels of like or similar construction are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,512,819 to Morgan et al., 4,730,428 to Head et al., 3,831,339 to Piralli, 3,592,289 to Aysta and 3,729,889 to Barazzini et el. Also of interest is U.K. patent No. 7878 (1886), French patents 889,320 (1943) and 1,400,453 (1965), Swiss patents 280,926 (1952) and 562,095 (1975), German patents 866,844 and 937,614 (1956), Canadian patent 764,645 (1967), and Italian patent 719,512 (1966).
A major shortcoming of the prior art devices is the difficulty encountered in separating the panels once they are assembled together. The art of easy to assemble and easy to take apart panels has not heretofore reached a high state of development.
The art can be divided into two main classifications: panels having specifically configured edges that interlock with mirror image edges of their mating panels, and those constructions where the panel edges do not interlock directly with adjacent panel edges but where a separate interlocking piece is employed to join two panels together.
Although both major classifications of the art are well developed, a need is still extant for a panel system that is more cost effective to manufacture than the systems heretofore known. Moreover, a need remains for panels that are easier to assemble into modular arrays than the panels of the prior art. Perhaps more importantly, a need exists for a panel system that is very easy to disassemble. Moreover, there remains a need for a panel system that facilitates the ready assembly of panel members and not only edge-to-edge relation to one another, but in three way ("T"), four way ("+"), orthogonal ("L") and other intersections as well.